1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to input of control parameters for systems including a scanning device, such as multifunction peripheral, copying machine, scanner or a facsimile machine. More particularly, the invention relates to a technique for inputting control parameters to manage batch-type processing of documents via instruction sets defined by graphical features on a form or document support.
2. Description of the Related Art
A wide variety of electronic devices are known and are currently used for managing documents such as printed materials, images, and so forth. In many such devices hardware and software are provided for digitizing images which are then reproduced, stored, analyzed, transmitted, or otherwise manipulated by a user or by a computer system. In a facsimile machine, for example, encoding devices detect light and dark regions on a page and transmit corresponding data to a receiving machine at a desired destination, where the data can be reconstructed into an image of the original document. Similarly, in both single color and multi-color scanners, all or portions of a document sheet are scanned and digitized by individual picture elements or pixels to generate data sets which can be used to reconstruct a portion or all of the original sheet. In many systems, the digitized information can be viewed by a user, such as via a computer monitor, and manipulated, such as for incorporation into a document or presentation.
User interfaces for document handling peripherals typically include a series of buttons or tactile elements which can be touched by a user to define desired instruction sets. The user may also view certain instructions as they are input via a display on a control panel or via a screen on which graphical information or words provide a readout of the instructions. For example, on a facsimile machine, a destination phone number is typically viewed on a small LCD panel as it is input. On digital copying machines, similar data may be viewed by the user to indicate desired reductions, single or multi-color reproduction, desired resolution, and so forth.
While such user interfaces are generally adequate for communicating certain instructions to the machine hardware and software, they are not without drawbacks. For example, depending upon the number of parameters available to the user, the interface may include a large number of keys or key combinations to accommodate the various instruction possibilities and operator adjustable parameters. Moreover, such user interfaces may require substantial time to input the desired settings. Such input may also open a possibility for error, such as in the composition of a destination telephone number for a facsimile transmission. For batch material handling, the inputs generally must be configured for each separate batch job, and are usually not set in advance, except to specific default conditions. If the default settings are not those desired by the user, the user must proceed through a sequence of steps to input the other settings prior to beginning the batch process.
There is a need, therefore, for an improved technique for adjusting settings of document handling systems such as multifunction peripheral devices, scanners, printers, facsimile machines, and so forth. There is, at present, a particular need for a technique which offers a simple and straightforward mechanism for altering settings on such devices with little or not operator intervention, thereby facilitating the use of various settings in sequential batch job-type operations.
The present invention provides a novel technique for defining instructions or settings in document handling systems designed to respond to these needs. The technique makes use of instruction sets which may be encoded on a document-type support and which, itself, can be fed through a document handling system along with documents to be scanned, stored, transmitted, or otherwise input. A wide range of document support types can be used, including document supports in which instruction sets are defined by graphical information or regions on a same page as the data to be input, as well as supports on separate pages which would typically precede the documents to be handled in a batch job. The instruction sets may consist of both machine readable codes, locations or reference points on the instruction region or page, as well as human readable indicia, including text defining the desired instructions. A wide variety of instructions may be provided, including input parameters such as scanning resolution, single or multi-color handling, copy collation, document scaling, and so forth. Moreover, the technique may be user-defined with references to stored data directly on a form or in a database. The database may include not only instructions for performing the scanning or input of the digitized data, but may further define post-encoding operations, including destination facsimile numbers, and so forth.